Blogs and anonymity - another News conspiracy?

Indeed, as Anne Lawson, director of Sirius Communication has observed, the more influential an anonymous contributor becomes, the more problematic the anonymity, as was the case with Grog influencing ABC policy.

Newspapers calling for bloggers to identify themselves makes the issue even more complex.

If there exists no check or balance on a blogger (as exists through a newspaper’s editorial process) how will they act?

Will they publish indiscriminately and irresponsibly in the belief that anonymity is itself a shield against prosecution?

Will they publish responsibly because they are underpinned by an individual but unidentified moral and ethical code of conduct?

Will they take responsibility for their actions in the same way that individual citizens are responsible for their own individual actions under the rule of law?

Probably not, given the whole reason for wanting to maintain anonymity is bound up in being able to do things that avoid proscription.

This does not translate into a belief that an anonymous blogger or Tweep is lawless.

But it does suggest the need for scrutiny and responsibility is as real on the web as it is on the page or in the airwaves.